Blood: Refreshed Supply™

300% price markup + delist prior less expensive port wombo combo. They want you to find ways to not pay for the game. I'd suggest you humor them.

I love the game and have done so for the past 30 years, but this is simply nothing more than a shameless cash grab.

(Opening Thoughts) This and Duke Nukem 3D both suffer from quite a conundrum, and to be honest, both games I feel both obligated and conflicted about reviewing, so here goes. But if you want the TLDR look below Get this if you don't own either of the previous re-releases, as this is a definitive way to play and currently the only way to play, however at the same time it isn't without it's flaws and it gets some bits right, and some wrong There's a reason I bring both games up, but essentially, this is the third time Blood has been re-released on steam, I know because I own all three versions I'll briefly list them off to give readers context here, and why I feel torn and also why my final verdict will be what it is. Keep all these things in mind The first was Blood-One Unit Whole Blood, which released in 1998, and that featured Cryptic Passage and the Plasma Pak expansions. This patched and definitive version of it came out originally in 1998, and it was brought to steam on July 14th, 2014 Next came Blood Fresh Supply, which was released on May 19th, 2019 Finally is this review, Refreshed Supply, which was released December 4th, 2025 I'll get the actual review of what Blood is, then go into tidbits about each version, and then my final thoughts I first heard about Blood and Shadow Warrior courtesy of LGR/Lazy Game Reviews (Shout out to one of Youtube's GOAT DOS reviewers) and I was amazed to discover both titles If Duke Nukem had a family of shooters, then in short, Duke is the action loving, bullet feeding, babe loving, and explosion craving action junkie, then Blood and Shadow Warrior are like the two distant cousins no one heard about until years later, and they're bummed out they never knew about them until now. Shadow Warrior essentially took Duke's formula and applied Kung Fu action akin to John Woo, Jackie Chan, and the like, whereas Blood took that same formula and applied to a giant homage to anything and everything horror and macabre whilst having very grim and supernatural undertones and themes. (As a small disclaimer, I bring up all 3 of these games as one because they were all within GT Interactive's umbrella, with 3D Realms obviously backing the latter two, and Blood eventually being bought by Monolith. Effectively, this was a trio of kindred 90s FPS games that were all familiar and had similar blood in their veins (pun intended) but all were executed differently and very well done, with varying degrees of following/fanbases, but each were positively received overall and showcase their own identities) You'll see a review of the base game below, along with what I enjoy about the title, then below I will be dissecting the version differences (Main Review) For those unaware, you may ask, what is Blood? Blood at it's heart is a gruesome and grim tale of revenge. You play as Caleb, a former high ranking officer in a dark cult. After Caleb gave almost everything to this group, you and other high ranking members and even some friends of his are betrayed by your leader It's up to you to gather all the bullets, explosives, and dark artifacts you can find as you go on a ravenous and violent rampage on your quest for revenge. On your morbid adventure, you'll take down everything from zombies to cultists to gargoyles, hellhounds, demons, you name it, but this game throws practically an entire evil grimoires worth of monsters at you. Top it off with in my opinion very unique weapons, from a vodoo doll to skull staff that fires dark magic to a flare gun pistol, which at first glance seems iffy, but believe it or not it's extremely versatile, because you can shoot an enemy three or four times with it, take cover, then hear your foes scream in agony as they're charred and toasted, it's also a nice bonus that every weapon has an alternate fire/secondary fire. Now, while that's commonplace now, back in 1997 that was a rare treat, even Duke 3D didn't have that, so to have that option makes the quote on quote "toybox" of weapons all the more fun and versatile My personal favorites being the Tesla Rifle, which fires electric shock balls as it's primary fire, whilst it's secondary fire's an explosive electric round Now, you may wonder, if blood is such a gruesome and fun romp of fighting against the dark, why do I feel mixed about this release? First, I'll get the positives out of the way Two New Episodes with Cutscenes-Alongside the previously released expansions I mentioned beforehand, Refreshed Supply adds the new episodes titled Death Wish and Marrow, Marrow being a new episode made by the development team, while Death Wish pulled a TBOI Repentance, by that I mean it's something that was fan made and added/made into something official The Vault-This contains unused/scrapped levels, concept art, 3D models, even developer photos are thrown in there Refined multiplayer and fixed/enhanced source code-This port has a lot of QOL improvements and allows for chaotic 8 player deathmatch if desired and even allows co-op, yes, the previous releases had multiplayer as well, but thankfully the developers really worked the kinks out at least on that front Console Porting-Yes, I am aware this is the steam version, but as an indie developer myself and a fan of cult classics. The fact that this game is FINALLY on consoles for the first time is a major step in the right direction. Hopefully this rekindles things and we may see a follow up akin to the Shadow Warrior reboot (For the record, Blood 2-The Chosen wasn't terrible, but it wasn't a proper Blood game or not exactly the game we should've waited years for, so a lot of people want a proper sequel) Now, here's the parts where I really feel torn and we get into the negatives/mixed bits (Critique/Problems) Optimization for Mods-Now DON'T GET ME WRONG, Both Refreshed Supply and Fresh Supply have mod support, but from what I've gathered, the mod support in THIS version is essentially "more rocky" for lack of a better term, and is harder to get them running, one mod that especially is missing is NotBlood, which is considered one of the best QOL improvements for the game to boot, the same goes for User Maps, the navigation and implementation of them is a bit iffy. To put it bluntly, Fresh Supply handled mod integration better than Refreshed Supply, accessing and installing user maps was a LOT easier on the last release I feel as though if this game eventually gets steam workshop support that would fix this problem, but only time will tell Lastly though, and biggest problem is price point Now I won't lie, there ARE good points to Refreshed Supply like I said, but at this point, this is literally the only way to play it, and when we have had previous releases that got some other things better, it feels really iffy and leaves me with mixed feelings that Monolith is asking for 30 dollars for this game. This version is good, but again, it suffers from the same thing Duke 3D World Tour suffers from, like that game, Megaton Edition is kind of the better version in some ways, and World Tour has some other things about it that make it better in other ways Blood Refreshed Supply essentially suffers the same exact problems, and it shows (Final Thoughts) Do I recommend this game? Yes and no One on end, i can absolutely recommend this to new players and those who never played the game before, or don't have the older versions, especially because it's finally on consoles, If you have the older versions, just play those and get this version dirt cheap for the best of both worlds But I ABSOLUTELY will warn you, PLEASE be weary of this re-release's shortcomings, and DO NOT PAY FULL PRICE. Get it on sale, I did so myself when it was 30% off "I re-release! AGAIN!!!" (For anyone curious/doesn't believe me, these are the community hubs to One Unit Whole Blood and Fresh Supply respectively) One Unit-https://steamcommunity.com/app/299030/ Fresh Supply-https://steamcommunity.com/app/1010750/

Really pissed I had to buy this game AGAIN. But this is without a doubt the best way to experience the game

You can read about the questionable pricing and release history in other reviews; I'll use my space here to beg you not to sleep on Marrow and Death Wish. Both are beyond incredible and elevate an already best Build engine game to the status of the absolute best retro shooter ever made, bar none. The level design is unbelievable. There is something mad awesome in nearly every single level here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MOoYaMNiN4 And the good news is that you don't need to play them here. Use Fresh Supply or any other source port you want - they're both available on ModDB.

I am torn about how to review this, but will ultimately lean positive on it, especially if I were to recommend this to someone who never played Blood before. As an owner of both One Unit Whole Blood, and Blood Fresh Supply, I feel this game should be discounted at least to owners of either one of those. As it stands, 30 dollars is way too much for an almost 30 year old boomer shooter, especially when the addons - Marrow and Death Wish - were free mods. However, it does introduce some nice quality of life changes (even if I hate that I can no longer cheese the fat zombies and gargoyles by crouching), and it never crashed or bugged out on me, which is more than I can say for OUWB. Ultimately, I will definitely recommend picking this up on a sale, OR if you have never owned Blood and are into Boomer Shooters, as this is one of THE OG ones along with Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior. I understand the pricing is not NightDives fault, and they do fantastic work with remastering my childhood games.

This is a 2025 re-release of a re-master and we STILL have issues with washed out graphics with HDR enabled. How? Does Night Dive Studios not use monitors made in the last decade?

Only buy on sale, but worth every dollar.

It’s a shame that this release has been handled in such a scummy way. On sale I found it a reasonable, but still questionable, price to experience Blood. I mean I don’t know how this remaster compares to the many ports and versions as this was my first time with Blood, and it is now my favorite classic/boomer (anything that's a pre-Half-Life design) shooter. I love the way this game looks, the tone, that’s it's from an era where references could be charming and not your entire personality. I love how it feels to play, to move, to fire both barrels of the shotgun in a cultist chest. The whole arsenal feels unique and powerful throughout. The level design is sharp, providing all the secret hunting and open feel that shooters used to have, but only on rare occasions feel like a total maze I got lost in. The map could be a little clearer but the Caleb sprite is cute. I was having a blast with this from moment one, and if gargoyles could just land a bit faster! I’d have nothing bad to say about this game. Well sometimes they thought a piercing tone was good enough to be music. I didn't like that in my ear, but at least it wasn’t as violent as something like System Shock.

About time a real remaster was done for this. The reason I refunded Fresh Supply is because it controlled WORSE than the original, looked WORSE than the original and didn't even have the original music files! So I figured I'd be dropping a $20 for a 2 hour demo before refunding because it wouldn't be the same as before and what do we have here?! The original music files? Actual compatibility with new systems and options to turn off for a true retro look? Wait, wait what? It also includes the expansions AND the original DOS files to run in a DOS box emulator to play with tank controls in its original unedited setting?! EXCUSE ME?! THEY ACTUALLY GAVE THE FULL PACKAGE AND THEN SOME?! Yes, a version of a "remaster" that I actually would pay for, and grabbed it for $20 on a 30% off sale which is the max I would pay for anything. Ah that old rusting pitch fork feels so good to back in my hands again. Breathing in that original soundtrack with the option to play not one but TWO different soundtracks (both of which give off HeXen vibes more than anything) and reliving this great adventure again. It's time to get bloody.